“Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce The Lifetime Health Risks
From Drinking Alcohol adapted for Indigenous
Communities”.
As part of NAIDOC Week, the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council (ADAC) launched its revised resource on the NHMRC Australian drinking guidelines, which were developed in 2009.They are also based on the ADAC Guidelines (2004) SA, “Alcohol and Your Health; Australian Guidelines for Indigenous communities”.

These guidelines have been updated to reflect the new alcohol guidelines. In a recent Galaxy Poll on community attitudes and behaviours less than 12% of Australians stated that they had any knowledge of the contents of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Guidelines. Only 10% were aware that the Guidelines had been updated. (1)
Production and dissemination of this Revision made possible by funding contribution from DrinkWise Australia.
ADAC Chairperson Mr Anthony Smith said “that the updated guidelines were clearly needed and were written in a form that made them user friendly and relevant to an Indigenous audience”. Director of ADAC Scott Wilson said, “That the updated guidelines would not have been possible without the financial contribution from Drinkwise and showed that collaborations could have a positive outcome. Scott further stated that ADAC was now looking at having the guidelines made into an App that could be downloaded by alcohol and drug workers directly onto there smart phones in the near future thereby ensuring that the guidelines were accessible and readily usable.
WHAT ARE THESE ALCOHOL GUIDELINES ALL ABOUT?
These alcohol guidelines are pieces of advice that tell you how much you can drink (if you choose to drink) and still minimise damage to your body.
DrinkWise Australia was established in 2005 by the alcohol industry and is entirely supported through voluntary contributions from alcohol producers and retailers.
DrinkWise Australia aims to play a key role in challenging the Australian drinking culture and tackling alcohol misuse. We create awareness in order to positively affect generational change and encourage new social norms that sustain a healthier and safer drinking culture. DrinkWise does this through the development and implementation of national information and education campaigns, with supporting practical resources that inform and support the community about alcohol use.
As an evidence based organisation, DrinkWise Australia relies on key independent research and clinical advice. The information supporting its campaigns and contained on its website (www.drinkwise.org.au) has been gathered from authoritative studies and knowledge gained through consultation with experts in the fields of public health, neuroscience, epidemiology, and child and adolescent psychology.
1) 2011 Alcohol Education Rehabilitation Foundation Annual Alcohol Poll: Community Attitudes and Behaviors.
2) About the NHM&RC Australian Alcohol Guidelines: The 2009 NHMRC safe drinking guidelines apply to men and women and sets a standard drinking level that will reduce both the risk of injury, violence and self harm, and the risk of developing alcohol-related diseases. The guideline limits are based on international epidemiological research that has quantified the risks of injuries and alcohol-related diseases after different levels of alcohol consumption (converted to Australian standard drinks) and with different patterns of drinking.
the previous guidelines that were written in 2004. They have been simplified, so we now have 4 guidelines instead of 12. This is because we are talking about a lifetime of risks. This can be confusing but basically there are different guidelines for different people with different drinking issues.
Many people believe that there are no safe levels of drinking. In their view, drinking any amount of alcohol puts you at some risk. Some of the health, social and emotional costs of drinking alcohol are referred to in this booklet.
Who is this resource for?
This booklet has been written for health workers and drug and alcohol workers. It has been written in the “first person” so that health workers and drug and alcohol workers can read the information directly to their clients.
It’s important for Australians to be clear about what the NHMRC is actually saying in these guidelines. The guidelines state that if you – as an adult – have more than two standard drinks on any one day – then on the best evidence available you begin to increase the risk of incurring harm. Consumption of one or two standard drinks carries a one-in-one-hundred (1 in 100) (2) risk of incurring harm, and the risk rises with each subsequent drink.
The Chair of DrinkWise, the Hon Trish Worth said, “DrinkWise was pleased to support ADAC to produce and disseminate the updated guidelines. ADAC has been tirelessly supporting indigenous people and those working with indigenous people for a number of years, and is recognised for its expertise in the development and delivery of a range of indigenous educational resources. It is important that this evidence based information is made available to the community and is tailored to a range of different audiences.”
Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council (SA) Inc (ADAC): ADAC is an Indigenous not-for-profit established in 1993 as a peak substance misuse body and is still one of the only funded organisations of its kind in Australia, ADAC have over a number of year developed culturally appropriate resources for use by AOD and health workers across Australia. ADAC originally received a grant from the Prime Ministers Office in early 2000 to develop the Australian Standard Drinking Guidelines for Indigenous Communities.
Copy can be down loaded:
http://www.adac.org.au/resources.php?resType=Alcohol